Here’s a nice photo of a Florida street. This is north of Aventura Mall, the big money place. It is an Anglo community with a low crime rate. But no budget to collect abandoned shopping carts off the sidewalks. See that fancy concrete wall? In Florida, everything kind of depends on which side of one you live on.
Veteran’s Day was Sunday last, but observed y’day. That is, if you want to call Hollywood portrayals the real thing. I watched “Saving Private Ryan” while reading a textbook on radio parts, which gives you a good indication of the role television has in my life. I’m ever amazed by how the German’s must have gone through the entire Wehrmacht and picked out their most stupid soldiers to staff the Atlantic Wall.Top candidates are soldiers who cannot shoot straight and stand exposed on top of tall objects while trying to snipe with a machine pistol. Everyone’s favorite must be the Germans who go into those concrete bunkers with an open back door and no guards. What’s more, the entrance leads straight into the gun compartment, which is never more than a grenade-throw in length. How about those trenches that are always wide enough to accommodate a GI wearing a flamethrower pack?
I had the shop change the tone of advertising for service calls. This, after one too many Floridian’s “misunderstood” what is meant by cash. Again I’ve never had it happen so often as Florida, but the event is typical of how Florida has become a haven for ignorance. They pretend they thought you meant a check made out to “Cash”. The last straw was y’day I got a lady had to “go home to get [her] checkbook”. Now I have to make a second trip out there.
From here on, we specify “cash money” for payment. Your computer is broken now, you pay now. I’ve never had a check cancelled, but I can imagine the problems for people that have. Besides, I also must make a three mile trip to the bank to deposit checks and I don’t get paid for that. [“The most annoying problems are life are caused by people trying to get you to do things their way without paying you for it.”]
It is time for another general increase in prices, which I can produce indirectly by simply not giving any more advice over the phone. Around 25% of people who phone are broke, looking for something free, or never call back for an appointment. It has always been true, but I used to leave it alone.
Ah, publicity. I got recognized in the street by a couple of ladies. No big deal, they weren’t my type, but it is the kind of thing that never happened when I played in anybody else’s group. My consumption of business cards has gone up to 60 per week, so maybe I have not missed the Xmas season yet.
You know, another thing stuck in my craw while the TV was on? That show where the police sting men by offering sex with teenagers and then videotape the arrest. What have we come to, America? We now entrap and arrest people for intentions? (If you think so, I hope it is your turn next.) Which is the greater crime? I do know that during Prohibition, if you wanted to find out if people were enjoying themselves, you did not go ask the police.
Every form of Prohibition is the same, whether it involves sex, booze, cigarettes, or whatever. It is unenforceable, and that is that. (Later, I’m informed some people confuse this stance with tolerance for things like murder. Wrong, murder is not something that was formerly legal and only became illegal after a “law” was passed--don’t confuse Prohibition with your own morality.)
I am not taking sides on that one, but what shocked me was the sheer violence of the arrests. There was no need for any violence at all in what I saw, and the police obviously knew the cameras were running. No matter how hated the crime, the police should not be permitted to throw unresisting people on the ground and jump on them. (Remember what I said about your turn.)
